Food

Food () is produced like other FIDS by planetary units. The amount of food each produces is affected by the type of planet and improvements on the system - for example, Ocean and Jungle planets provide 4 per per turn (Disharmony value). The total food produced (by all planets of a system) contributes to the rate of colony growth for that system as a whole, producing more population units.

Good initial food production is vital for growth as it will produce lots of new population. These population units will generate even more resources for the star system as a whole. Therefore, when colonizing new systems, you should choose a planet with good production to allow growth. Without the food, population growth will be minimal and the FIDS income will remain low, reducing the ability to develop and invest in improvements that would further boost growth. Maintaining a high rate of population growth contributes to a solid economy, and good food production is the biggest factor in doing so.

The planets of a system generate directly from population. The first colonized planet in a newly occupied system should be selected to maximize early food production. Jungle, Terran, and Ocean planets produce the highest base and are therefore the best planets to colonize early in the game. Immediately choosing a food-generating Planetary Exploitation option after colonizing each planet of a system is typically a good strategy until most all planets of a system are fully populated, after which the choice of exploitation for planets can be changed for later-game goals to support manufacturing, research, or dust income.

Researching technologies that offer system improvements and access to bonus resources such as Hydromiel can also significantly increase food production. Assignment of a hero with an affinity for Labor will also increase the rate of food and population growth.

Each Population Unit consumes 2 . If you have more than this amount in a system, your population will grow; if you have less, it will shrink. The population cannot decrease below 1 per colonized planet and cannot exceed the total capacity of all colonized planets. It is possible for a system's population to increase by more than 1 in a single turn. The game chooses which planet in a system to place (or remove) new population unit(s), however players can manually relocate population units among the colonized planets of a system.

The total accumulated excess needed to reach a certain population is given by

4 * (current )^2.4

The amount of accumulated excess since the last population increase needed to increase the population by 1 is approximately given by

(5 * (current + 0.5))^1.4

This means that more populated systems will grow more slowly, even if the to ratio is the same.